We had a big dump of snow in Atlantic Canada yesterday. Being outside yesterday tackling all this white stuff made me guiltily realize I still hadn’t put winter tires on my van.

So I head to Canadian Tire Online to check out their winter tires and found myself a bit surprised at what I encountered.

Maybe it’s a guy thing, but I couldn’t imagine sending this to facebook, digg or de.li.cious. Sure, they’re on sale, but not out of this world on sale. I can just imagine the looks on my friends faces in facebook if I sent this. I realize it’s a storewide option, so I tried to envision cooler items at Canadian Tire that I’d want to add to my facebook…. possibly, yes. And maybe this is where gender kicks in. I could maybe envision sharing a beautiful patio set that would be on sale. But winter tires just don’t have the same effect on me.

Jason Rowser blogged that he recently discovered that yellowpages.com had an add to facebook option.

Is it just me, or do some of these social networking options for some commerical purposes just seem odd? At this point, I don’t think there’s enough relevance for all situations.

radian6 is a Fredericton, NB based start-up that provides advertising and PR professionals a way of monitoring social media. Social media is having a huge influence on how brands are being perceived by consumers. As web users we often participate in social media. Who hasn’t joined facebook yet? Myspace, youtube, blogging, digg, twitter and more all litter the web 2.0 landscape. radian6 has provided a solution to monitor these online conversations

Today radian6 announced that Weber Shandwick, a worldwide leading PR firm will be implementing radian6’s social media monitoring solutions throughout it’s offices worldwide.

When radian6 first launched, there were skeptics about the need for another social media monitoring tool. But I think they’re proving that what they have is targeted, effective and a time saver.  And as Kami at Communication Overtones discovered, it also tracks comments, something that will prove very useful. She was fortunate enough to test out radian6’s software and wrote a review on her experience with it.

David Alston, VP of marketing has been very busy lately. He was recently in vegas for  WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) and I think they’re only going to get busier.  I’m hoping to meet up with radian6 in the near future to interview them as I do have a lot of questions about the software. How they compare to BUZZLOGIC and what kind of information they provide to their clients on interpeting the data. 

Congratulations, radian6,  on your new venture with Weber Shandwick!